love for the children in her care, remained as matron of the Orphanage for seventeen years. During Miss Ward's employment, whenever a girl entered the Orphanage, a hope chest was started for her future dowry and into each chest went a quilt and other articles as available. The Civil War On June 6, 1862, the Union fleet defeated the Confederate naval forces in the Battle of Memphis and Union troops occupied Memphis. In 1863 General Ulysses S. Grant designated the City of Memphis as the Union Army's Hospital and Supply Base to support his planned attack on the City of Vicksburg. However, none of these supplies were of benefit to the citizens of Memphis or the children at the Orphanage. Also, as a result of the war, the city's churchwomen could no longer contribute to the Home's support or pay Miss Ward's salary. Nonetheless, Miss Ward stuck to her post and provided for the children by what she could raise on the Orphanage's twenty-nine acres of land. During this period, the Orphanage had to endure the confiscation of their poultry and most of their livestock and finally foraging Union soldiers took the last one of the Orphanage's milk cows. Furious at this outrageous act, Miss Ward rode to the Union military headquarters [either at what is now known as the Hunt-Phelan House on Beale Street or the Gayoso Hotel on the river bluff] in Memphis and proclaimed to the Union commander, "I do not propose that my children shall go without milk. I am coming back here until our cow is returned, or another cow given us." Eventually, even the Union Army gave in and Miss Ward got her cow. The Yellow Fever Epidemic After the war ended in 1865, Memphis soon became the fastest-growing city in the United States and in 1867 regained its designation as the "county seat". Along with this growth, however, came challenges. One of the most devastating was a series of yellow fever epidemics. Beginning in 1873 and continuing through 1879, the deadly fever killed more than 8,000 Memphis citizens [at least 2,000 in 1873; more than 5,200 in 1878; and 500 plus in 1879] and, by the late 1870s, resulted in closure of the town's businesses when more than half of the population left the city. At one point, Memphis was in debt Six Million Dollars. Due to this overwhelming economic burden, the City